The Real Cost of Illegal Immigration Is Measured in American Lives

Alexander Mazin (pictured above) was just 27 years old when Ernesto Castellanos Martinez allegedly shot him in cold blood behind a San Diego area gym and left him there to die in late February of this year, ABC 10 News reported.

Dr. Jeffrey Mazin, Alexander’s father, joined Fox News host Laura Ingraham on “The Ingraham Angle” Tuesday night just north of Tijuana, where she was broadcasting live from the U.S.-Mexico border as tempers flare over the issue of illegal immigration and how to solve some of the thorniest challenges connected to it.

“There are a lot of people [who] hate this country,” said Ingraham to Mazin. “And the pain of the families that have suffered at the hands of illegal immigrant cartels, criminals, hit-and-runs, DUIs, is ignored by most of the Left and most of the media. I refuse to ignore these stories,” she added — and asked to hear more about Alexander Mazin.

“He was a very religious young man. He loved his God. He loved his country. He was quite the patriot,” said Mazin of his late son. “Alexander was everybody’s model,” he added.

“My son died there in the parking lot like a rat in the street,” the father added, the emotion raw and clear in his voice. He explained that the killer allegedly waited for his son outside the gym, shot him — and when Alexander fell, face up, in the parking lot, shot him four more times in the chest.

“President [Donald] Trump’s reaction was really amazing,” added Mazin, referencing a later meeting when the president learned about the senseless murder of a young American. “[Trump] grimaced. He had tears coming down his face — shaking his head, upset. You could see the uncontrollable upset in him.”

“You really have been separated from your son,” noted Ingraham, “from a lax border policy of an individual who was already deported once, voluntary deportation, and yet he came back again.”

Ingraham made note of a recent visit by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to a facility near the border, where she gave a speech intended to shame President Trump for a law put in place years ago that requires the separation of children from their illegal immigrant parents in certain situations. Ingraham emphasized that though she, too, believes that separating children from parents is far from ideal, there is a crucial contingent of American victims in this situation who are too easily and too often ignored.

“If one of their loved ones were to have died like my son died, I wonder if their ideas and their ways of presenting things and thinking would be different,” said Mazin. “I just wonder … How about we poor citizens and how about my poor son, because he has been permanently separated from us.”

Mazin said that his son had been dating the killer’s ex-girlfriend. Multiple outlets indicated that the suspect had attacked the woman just two weeks before he allegedly then murdered Alexander Mazin.

The suspect, who reportedly goes by the name of Ernesto Castellanos, is still at large. He may have fled back to Mexico. If so, the process of finding him there and having him extradited to face the consequences of a horrific crime will likely be an uphill battle.

The twice-deported illegal alien had a “voluntary departure” agreement from 2004, CBS8 reported. Under this type of agreement, undocumented immigrants who have been convicted of immigration-related violations are requested to leave the country on their own.

Whether Castellanos simply never left or whether he left the country and returned again isn’t clear.

What is clear is that he was here illegally — and the people who paid the price for his alleged crime were the late Alexander Mazin, his parents, his loved ones, and his community.

Jeffrey Mazin told 10 News two weeks after his son’s death, “I want President Trump to know about this … I want him to be aware there was a true patriot, a wonderful human being that was an exemplary citizen that was lost because of this problem with our border.”

Just two months later, Kristin Gaspar helped make Mazin’s request a reality. Gaspar, a Republican, is chairwoman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and is currently running to succeed Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) in Congress.

During the roundtable on California’s sanctuary cities held on May 16 in the Cabinet Room at the White House, Gaspar related the Mazins’ tragic story to the president — and explained that under current laws and policies, their son’s killer may have an easy time evading consequences for his act.

He was “a wonderful human being who was an exemplary citizen, [and he] was lost because of this problem with our border.”

Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.), she said, made San Diego a “great place to commit a crime because you have options. You can either be across the border in a matter of minutes and shielded by Mexico, or you have the option of simply staying put, shielded by Gov. Moonbeam.”

Gaspar thanked the president for his advocacy, and assured him of her continued commitment to fight for the safety of her constituents, like the Mazins, “until we can look back at our own children and guarantee their safety in our community.”

Michele Blood is a Flemington, New Jersey-based freelance writer and a regular contributor to LifeZette.

(photo credit, homepage and article: YouTube)